Residential Generative Flash Workshop with Kathy Fish in Charles Town, WV
Monday Nov. 2 - Friday, Nov. 6, 2026
We will be staying at this beautiful “Almost Heaven” home in the Eastern Panhandle of beautiful West Virginia on the outskirts of Charles Town (not to be confused with Charleston on the other side of the state).
The registration fee covers workshop costs, one individual session with Kathy Fish, workshop materials, private room with bedding and towels, continental breakfast, lunch, dinner, light snacks, parking, and welcome gift.
Writing spaces abound in the nooks and crannies and porches of this amazing home. And when you just need a break, there are firepits, 2 hot tubs, arcade games, an exercise room, a pool table, a ping pong table, and a rescue farm next door (that we are welcome to visit) with cows, ducks, horses, chickens, bunnies and more.
Participants are responsible for their own transportation to and from the retreat venue. (Just fyi, you will not need a car while you are attending the retreat as all events are on-site.)
Kathy Fish’s stories have been published or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, Five Points, Guernica, Swamp Pink, Electric Literature, Denver Quarterly, Best American Nonrequired Reading, the Norton Reader, and Norton’s Flash Fiction America. She has been honored with a Copper Nickel Editor’s Prize and multiple appearances in both the Wigleaf Top 50 and the Best Small Fictions series. The author of five short fiction collections, Fish teaches a variety of writing workshops online. She also publishes a bestselling craft newsletter on Substack: The Art of Flash Fiction. Her writing has been generously supported by fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation and the Kerouac Project.
Guest Workshop Leaders
Sarah Freligh
Sarah Freligh is the author of eight books, including Sad Math, winner of the 2014 Moon City Press Poetry Prize; Hereafter, winner of the 2024 Bath Novella-in-Flash contest; and Other Emergencies, the 2025 Editor’s Choice from Moon City Press. Her work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologized in New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction (Norton 2018), Best Microfiction and Best Small Fiction. Among her awards are poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Saltonstall Foundation.
You can Find her at sarahfreligh.com or Twitter/X: @sfreligh
Joy Deva Baglio
Joy Deva Baglio is a writer of speculative-literary fiction and the founder of the literary arts organization Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop, based in Northampton MA (and virtually). Her short stories appear widely in journals such as One Story, Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, American Short Fiction, Conjunctions, Tin House, The Fairy Tale Review, and elsewhere. Two stories have been optioned for film/TV. Her writing has been supported by fellowships, grants, and residencies from Yaddo, The Elizabeth George Foundation, Ragdale, Vermont Studio Center, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, The Speculative Literature Foundation, and The Kerouac Project, where she was the spring 2023 Writer-in-Residence living and writing in Jack Kerouac’s Orlando bungalow. Joy holds an MFA from The New School and is currently at work on multiple novels and a short story collection. She lives in Northampton, MA, where she can also be found playing the bagpipes. She writes a semi-regular Substack—Alone in a Room—on the craft of writing.
Visit her online at www.JoyBaglio.com.
Your Host
Ellen Weeren
Ellen Weeren’s work has been published by the Saturday Evening Post, the Kenyon Review (KRonline), Fractured Lit, Liars’ League NYC, the Hong Kong Review, Crack the Spine, Stonecoast Review, and others. She’s the recipient of the George Mason 2019 Outstanding Graduate Student Award (MFA Fiction), the Porches Writing Fellowship, the Marjorie Kinnear Sydor Award in Literary Citizenship, WV Writers Terry McNemar Scholarship, and the Kenyon Review’s Novel Writing Workshop Peter Taylor Fellowship. TripBase twice recognized her blog about living in India as one of the top 10 best travel blogs.
Ellen runs a writers retreat in Harpers Ferry, WV (www.AReasontoWrite.com). Her short story collection titled Love and Other Failures is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press. She lives in West Virginia with a reasonable number of cats and is working on a novel.
Tentative Schedule
Monday – Nov. 2nd
- Arrive between 4 PM and 6PM
- Opening dinner and meet and greet
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
- Continental Breakfast
- Morning generative workshop with Kathy
- Writing Time/Lunch
- Additional Craft Lesson w/prompt
- One-on-One Sessions with Kathy
- Dinner
Departure day – Friday, Nov. 6
- Continental Breakfast and depart by 10am
Pricing
Early Bird Special: Deposit Paid on or before April 30th
- Private Room/Shared Bathroom = $1,575.00
- Private Room/Private Bathroom – SOLD OUT
Regular Price: Deposit Paid after April 30th
- Private Room/Shared Bathroom = $1,650.00
The Fine Print
- A 50% deposit is required to reserve your spot.
- Full payment will be due October 1, 2026 (Deposits on Early Bird Specials must be paid by midnight on April 30.)
Cancellation Policy
- All cancellations must be in writing (ellen.weeren@gmail.com)
- Before August 1: 90% of registration fees refunded.
- August 1 – October 1: 50% of registration fees refunded unless we successfully fill your spot from our waitlist with a writer who pays full price. If that happens, you’ll receive 75% of your registration fees as a refund.
- After October 1: Registration fees are non-refundable, unless we successfully fill your spot from our waitlist with a writer who pays full price. If that happens, you’ll receive 75% of your registration fees as a refund.
- In the case of a refund, there will be a 10% cancellation fee.
FAQs for the Kathy Fish Workshop
First and foremost, a chance to study with Kathy Fish and have an individual meeting with her. But also all workshop materials and a welcoming gift. Plus, accommodations from Monday afternoon on Oct. 21 through Friday morning on Oct. 25th, including free parking if you choose to have a car at the retreat. All meals starting with dinner on Monday and ending with breakfast on Friday, plus snacks and drinks.
The retreat in nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Charles Town, West Virginia, just over an hour from Washington, DC, by car. It’s about 20 minutes by Uber from the Harpers Ferry Train Station and about 1 ½ hours by car/Uber from both Dulles International and BWI airports.
Participants are responsible for the costs and arrangements for getting to and from the retreat space. We can suggest third-party vendors for airport/train transport but are not able to coordinate arrangements for you. All workshop events will happen at the retreat space, so you do not need a car during the workshop.
Yes, all of the rooms are private rooms.
Some rooms have private bathrooms and are priced accordingly. Reservations will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis. Please register early if you want a private bathroom.
The pricing is structured on one person in each room.
The workshop fee covers lodging, meals, and workshop activities. You do not have to stay on property but fees cannot be reduced.
Yes. Prompts and writing time are part of the workshops. Plus, after dinner, you are free to spend your time however you’d like.
Of course. Please just let us know as soon as possible what your concerns are so that we can fully plan for them.
No. Not in the house or near entrances.
Not Allowed
Unfortunately, the house is booked before and after our event. But we can recommend nearby hotels if you’d like to do that. Ellen also has writer retreat space at her home a few miles from the workshop space. Please reach out to her here if you’d like to discuss options.